Page 31 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #42 FREE Edition

making. Can you explain that light gun game and any others you may have done or plan on doing in the future?
AG: I always wanted to make Wild Gunman from Back to the Future II... and finally did so a few years ago. The easy thing to do would
be to toss an NES and a TV in a cabinet. That’s what they did for the movie, but I wanted to have
the most “arcade accurate” version possible. Wild Gunman was never an actual arcade machine, but it was available on PlayChoice-10 hardware. So I went with the PlayChoice board in a Donkey Kong cabinet with a VS control panel wired with the additional PC10 buttons hidden underneath.
At first, I was having trouble finding an original black Nintendo arcade gun and was going to adapt a Famicom revolver light gun, but while closely inspecting BTTF II frames in 4K, I realized that the gun you see Marty McFly using
on screen was a different color arcade gun painted black. So I plasti-dipped a gun and eventually replaced it with an original black Nintendo arcade gun. I figured out how to repair arcade light guns with NES Zapper internals and had to learn a little leatherworking to make the holster close to what you see on screen.
Since it’s PlayChoice-10 based, you can also play other Nintendo gun games like Duck Hunt, Hogan’s Alley, as well as any PC10 game or NES cartridge with an adapter. After finishing my Wild Gunman, I was commissioned to make another, so
I had to quickly hunt down another cabinet, PC10 board, VS panel, and so on.
I have since made a Fix It Felix Jr. cabinet from Wreck-It Ralph. There’s something magical about making fictional movie props into something real. Last Starfighter would be interesting, but my next prop game build might be Bishop of Battle from Nightmares... or the Love Tester from The Simpsons!
TI: What are your favorite arcade games? Your #1 favorite?
AG: I love Qbert*: you really have to have an original cabinet with the diagonal joystick to play it right. I love the pinball knocker and speech synthesis. I bought mine from Mike Doyle, who discovered the mythical 7-11 version of Qbert* hiding in code while making multi-game kits. I love having a good story to go with a game pickup. Like the time my dad and I rented a cargo van and drove nearly 24 hours straight through the Rocky Mountains
and back for Tempest, my all-time favorite. I LOVE color vector games, and Tempest would always leave me wanting “just one more game.”
TI: What’s your favorite pin and why?
AG: Attack From Mars remake
was my first NIB pin... drove up to Oakland, Nebraska, to pick it up from Pinball Pro. I enjoy the humor, the lights and sound are perfect, and the Martian topper just puts it over the top.
TI: What’s the most underrated pin and arcade game?
AG: I don’t like thinking of games as over or underrated... by today’s standards, most of the classics would be overrated, but that would be overlooking their historical and cultural importance. A lot of people who visit my house are coming more from a pop culture world, so seeing Data East Back to the Future might be more exciting to them than a better game like Medieval Madness. Pirate Pete is easily the most underrated version
of Jungle King. You can play it on BitKit FPGA; it’s a great way to discover and play obscure arcade games.
TI: What’s the most overrated pin and arcade game?
AG: Baby Pac-Man kinda checks both boxes. Not really a good
version of Pac-Man, not much of a pinball machine, and hard to keep working... but man, I love weird hybrid games like this.
TI: What do you consider the holy grail of arcade cabinets? Pinball?
AG: I’ve been able to check most
of the games off my want list... but maybe Major Havoc? Did I mention how much I love color vectors?
If space was no limit, I would absolutely love a Sinistar cockpit!
TI: What’s your advice to anyone who wants to start a home arcade right now?
AG: Be prepared to drop everything and run with cash in hand if the right game pops up for the right price in your area. Learn to rebuild monitors, diagnose issues, but also know when it’s time to send the board off for repair.
TI: Anything you want to plug or give a shoutout to?
AG: My band Glow in the Dark can be found on Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. facebook.com/WeAllGlowInTheDark weallglowinthedark.bandcamp.com
If you want to learn more about me or my projects, please visit www. vgcollectorguide.com
The Video Game Console Collector’s Field Guide is currently available for purchase at www. premiumeditiongames.com
and The Video Game Collector’s Field Guide will be available for purchase in a short few months @ both Hagensalley.com & vgcollectorguide.com – TI
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